markmccaughrean

markmccaughrean, 22 minutes ago

@Richard_Littler It’s intriguing to compare how those “phase shift” albums were received & perceived at the time, with how they look today, forty years on.

For Yes, 90125 was huge & opened the band to new audiences, but is impossible to listen to now without it feeling dated, sonically quintessentially of its 80s time.

And yet while their 1971-1977 run of five studio albums from Fragile to Going for the One remind me of being younger, they don’t sound like they’re from the 70s.

markmccaughrean, 13 hours ago

@MostlyTato While it feels almost certain to me that our civilisation will collapse, as many have done before, some humans will likely survive.

A thousand years from now, they may advance back to a state where their historians then look at the detritus of our lost age & try to figure out quite how we were so stupid.

Of course, if the inevitable global conflicts arising from the climate crisis spiral into nuclear war, then all bets may indeed be off.

markmccaughrean, 10 hours ago

@black_flag The world as we know it will end, but it’s entirely plausible that some humans will survive.

With the same brain power, if not the codified knowledge & tools, but quite possibly for long enough to give the whole civilisation thing yet another shot.

We will be their Egyptians, thousands of years in the past, the ruins of our cities half buried & poorly understood. Those are the historians I mean.

markmccaughrean, 22 hours ago

@dan613 I know & there also accounts that show things being chucked in industrial blenders. But still, the idea that crushing analogue musical instruments & other creative items is a good way of selling a tool for creativity … well, it strikes me as completely crass & insensitive.

But that’s today’s Silicon Valley – a sense of evangelical self-righteousness about tech optimism, money-making schemes wrapped in cod philosophy.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@grb090423 Hmm, that was my thought too, but I haven't been able to find any pictures which look similar. Hopefully some Odonata experts will know & chime in.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@hfalcke The number of holidays in May is absurd, in my view, especially coming reasonably close after Easter.

And while I expect we might disagree on this, I’m not thrilled with religious holidays closing down all of society – sure, if others want to celebrate, zero problem, but in their own time, not compelling me to do so as well 🤷‍♂️

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@hfalcke I’m not arguing for destroying national holidays & agree on the need for shared moments in the calendar.

But I’d far prefer that most be linked to secular events like New Years Day & a national day, or even international things like Earth Day or a Peace Day.

For similar reasons, I’m firmly opposed to taxes collected by the State on behalf of churches. Let churches receive funding directly from their adherents.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@brunthal @hfalcke Sure, I don’t deny that for a moment – you’d be hard pressed to find a country anywhere where people would willingly give up public holidays.

But that misses my point – May has a big concentration of them because of the long tail of Easter, & they would be better distributed around the year.

I’d get rid of the legacy privileges that religions enjoy (albeit only some, of course): they have no place in a modern state, just as monarchs don’t.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@vicgrinberg @knud Probably too late for you at this point, but I would have refused to give the talk.

I've been there a million times & in 99.9% of cases, this whole "oh, you must use PowerPig; it's impossible any other way" is bullshit from a technical perspective & simply to make their lives easier, not yours.

You're the invited speaker with the content they want to hear, so you should be setting the terms on which you're willing to turn up.

For me, this is simply non-negotiable.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@vicgrinberg @knud I've given talks at events where the organisers have insisted I send my presentation over days or weeks in advance. Nope, not happening either: my time is more precious to me than yours.

Yes, it's perfectly reasonable to agree to do a tech check the evening or morning before, but that doesn't have to be the final version of your talk.

Anyone who insists that your talk be delivered in a certain programme / format / timescale is doing it for their convenience, not yours.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@mikerspencer @vicgrinberg @knud Since a Mac + Keynote uses HDMI as its output, there's no excuse for organisers insisting on a PC / PowerPoint / in advance if it doesn't suit you. You should only have to worry that it works on the laptop you create it on – everything else is their responsibility.

Often I find that the technical people at the sharp end are absolutely fine with this & will make sure it works. It's often the admin organisers in between who are clueless.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@mikerspencer @vicgrinberg @knud That said, the place where it took the longest for the technicians to find a solution was Google HQ in Mountain View 🙂

I gave a lunchtime talk there & while there were a hundred people in the room, most watched via streaming across the campus.

For security reasons, I couldn't plug my laptop into their network & for well-known competition reasons, Google didn't allow their staff to have Macs with Keynote.

We got there in the end though 🤷‍♂️🤪

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@vicgrinberg @mikerspencer @knud To be honest, I can't remember exactly anymore, but have a vague feeling that it involved someone bringing in a "research Mac" & reinstalling the deleted Keynote on it.

Not quite as bad as the school in India where their projector just failed & I had to give the whole talk without visuals 🤷‍♂️

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@hfalcke @vicgrinberg @knud Similarly, if they insist on a some slides in advance as a check, I send a five slide template talk that has a movie, some sound, some non-standard typefaces, & so on. So not my talk at all, but a tech check.

Almost completely pointless, as there's nothing non-standard about a Mac pushing out pixels & sound down an HDMI cable, but it tends to placate nervous organisers.

And as you say, in the end, talking nicely to the local tech folk is always the answer.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@acdha @vicgrinberg @knud Even there I'd have problems. I've sometimes been asked to format my talk using the conference / company template, usually loaded with logos, & I always refuse – I'm there to talk about what my organisation / institute has done, not to burnish their company image / sell their products.

Admittedly, as someone who has exclusively owned Macs for the past 25 years & is an Apple shareholder, I applaud the company's control freakery, but still ...

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@hfalcke @vicgrinberg @knud Hmm – my 2024 MacBook Pro has a direct HDMI port, as did my previous models, so maybe an upgrade is in order 🙂

It's because of non-playing movies & incompatible typefaces that I refuse to compromise – HDMI should be standard across Macs & PCs.

One area that can be tricky, but also resolvable if working with a good tech team, is working in dual monitor mode, where the projector shows your talk, but your laptop or a separate monitor shows the presenter mode.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@hfalcke @vicgrinberg @knud My ESA M1 MacBook Pro from several years ago had direct HDMI, as does my new personal M3 model, so it sounds like you’re still on an Intel machine perhaps. If so, I can throughly recommend the upgrade 🙂

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@hfalcke @vicgrinberg @knud Which is why I have always had the 15/16 inch models, I guess: three USB-C ports, HDMI, & an SD card slot for photography, all frequently used.

Mine mainly serves as my desktop machine, connected to a dock, with an external display, external keyboard, several hard drives, Ethernet, & so on.

Yes, a bit heavier to carry when commuting & travelling, but a bigger display is always helpful to me anyway. I carry a USB-C mini dock when travelling: weighs almost nothing.

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@vicgrinberg @hfalcke @knud I cycled with mine to ESTEC every day & it wasn’t really an issue: sometimes I carried both the 16” & my esa365 14” as well 🤷‍♂️ Now, this may become more of a challenge if I start cycling up the Königstuhl, of course 🤪